I need Media Center Edition HELP, Please!!!

T

TurneBJ

New Member
Hi all,

I have a little situation... I have a legit MCE OEM sticker and number that came with my laptop, but I lost the original cds. I have downloaded MCE off the net, but apparently, its the retail version, because my cd-key will not work during install. So, I need one of two things to fix my trouble: 1.) A copy of MCE OEM to download or 2.) the Part No. that is on the front of an MCE RETAIL CD ( so I can call Microsoft, tell them i lost my product-key, then they verify i "own" the MCE cd by asking for that part number, and issue me a new product-key.) REMEMBER, I need the Part No. that is on the front of the CD, not on the sticker, or package. (example of a WinXP PRO w/SP2 OEM is: 0504 Part No. X10-59871)

I have spent hours on the net looking for this part number...i have even tried google image searching so i can blow up a pic of the cd & get number, but all pics of cds were OEM cds, not RETAIL.

Thanks a lot for all who help (multiple posts from different people w/ part number would be great, so I can verify thet posted info is correct. That way, when i call MS, i dont look stupid.)

-Brandon
 
why dont you just call Microsoft now and tell them what happened? They might be able to give you another copy of the CD's for $10 or something.
 
I second what Omega says. Microsoft has come through for me before. BTW, I have never seen a laptop with MCE. (I could be wrong there) You have left a few things out. Why do you need to reinstall MCE on the laptop? Most branded computers ship with either restore discs (you can buy from manufactor) or it is located on the hard drive and prompts you to download them many times after initial start up. Hmm beginning to think there is something fishy here. I have MCE on the computer I am using now, and every bit of the information that I would need for a reinstall came with the computer.
 
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First off, I LOST the CD's...that was mentioned in the very first sentence. And, there is no restore partition. The laptop is an HP DV8113CL; It has an AMD Turion 64-bit CPU, 1GB of RAM, 2*80 GB HDs, and a flippin' HUGE Widescreen LCD... and yes, it came with MCE 2005... it is purely marketed as a media frenzy laptop... hell, it even comes with a remote control (and as far as I know, MCE is the only OS that is compatible with a remote control with factory settings.) If anyone else out there can help me, and you doubt my honesty in this situation, I would be glad to take pictures of the laptop and the MCE sticker on the bottom of it. Also, when i called Microsoft, they told me I could do one of 3 things: 1.) call them back with a part no. on front of MCE Retail cd, 2.) call HP and buy new restore cds, 3.) buy MCE, or 4.) believe it or not, use someone else's MCE Retail Product-Key while installing Retail MCE from cd because every RETAIL MCE Product-Key can be activated on TWO computers, and not just one (BTW, they also told me that the OEM version was not like this... only one activation per Product-Key)
 
See how posting enough information to begin with clarifies a problem. Hmm seems as though I did mentioin option 2, so I wasn't totally wrong. BTW the restore discs are usually pretty cheap.

Guess Microsoft forgot to inform you that they don't offer MCE as retail but rather only as OEM.

I do say that if you haven't noticed, anyone that is asking for product keys are usually warned and then the thread locked.

Beginning to look like your options are: 1) Buy OEM MCE $89-102, 2) Buy restore disc from HP $20.

That is a mighty fine (new) laptop to be losing the CDs.

With it being so new, I have to ask why you are needing to Reinstall the OS?
 
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